Jillian Toussaint
“Engineer who learned that the toughest problems aren’t technical, they’re human”
Graduation Year: HEC Paris Class of 2024
Current Role: Engineering Improvement Manager at Air Products
What were your motivations for pursuing an EMBA?
After nearly 15 years as an engineer, with several international moves and a range of technical roles behind me, I found myself at an interesting point in my career.
I still loved engineering. I enjoyed the technical complexity of the work and felt fortunate to be involved in major energy transition projects. But I was also starting to realize that the hardest problems I was dealing with were not always technical. More often, they were organizational.
I could often see the problem, and sometimes even the solution, but I did not always know how to bring the broader organization with me. I wanted to better understand how decisions were made, how to influence across functions, and how to connect technical realities with business priorities.
So for me, the EMBA was never about leaving engineering behind. It was about expanding my perspective. I wanted to build confidence in areas such as finance, strategy, legal risk, and organizational leadership so I could move from identifying problems to helping lead meaningful change.
How did you know HEC Paris Executive MBA was the right fit for you?
The Energy specialization was what first caught my attention. Given my background in industrial gases and energy transition projects, the opportunity to explore the future of energy within one of the world’s leading EMBA programs felt very relevant.
But what convinced me was the people.
During the admissions process, I attended a class on campus, and I remember walking away thinking, “These are people who are going to challenge how I think.” The discussion was thoughtful, the professors were engaging, and the students brought perspectives from industries and countries very different from my own.
That mattered to me. I was not looking for a program where I could stay comfortable. I wanted to be pushed, challenged, and exposed to ideas I would not naturally encounter in my day-to-day work. HEC Paris felt like the right environment for that.
How did you tailor your individual learning experience?
I complemented the core curriculum with the Shape the Future of Energy specialization, which aligned closely with both my professional background and my interest in the evolving energy landscape.
Jean-Michel Gauthier, who led the specialization, brought an incredible depth of insight into the global energy market. His modules helped connect the technical, commercial, geopolitical, and organizational dimensions of the energy transition in a way that was both practical and thought-provoking.
Like many EMBA participants, I also had to be realistic about my time. I was balancing a demanding role and a busy family life, so I focused on the parts of the program that would have the greatest impact on my development. For me, that meant choosing experiences that stretched how I thought, gave me practical tools, and helped me apply the learning directly back into my work.
How did you balance the demands of work, family, and the program while studying?
Balancing the EMBA with a demanding corporate role and three young children was definitely the hardest part of the experience. There were moments when managing stakeholders at work felt easier than negotiating bedtime routines at home.
At first, I considered the weekend format, but weekends are often the busiest time in our household. Between children’s activities, sports, and family commitments, the modular format ended up being the least disruptive option for us.
The support of my husband and family made it possible. There is no way around that. Doing an EMBA requires effort from more than just the person enrolled in the program.
What surprised me, though, was how much I came to value the modular structure. For one week at a time, I could step away from the normal pace of work and family life and fully immerse myself in learning. That kind of focused time is rare. I would come back tired, but also energized, with new ideas, practical frameworks, and a broader perspective that I could immediately apply at work.
What’s a standout moment or memory from your time at HEC Paris that really stuck with you?
Without question, it was the people.
Before joining, I expected strong professors and high-quality content. What I did not fully appreciate was how much I would learn from my classmates. They were smart, generous, direct, and brought incredibly diverse experiences to every discussion.
We are still an active cohort today, meeting in person when we can and regularly leaning on each other for advice, even though we are now spread across different countries and industries.
One memory that really stands out was an intensive Capstone working week in Chamonix with several members of our cohort, the Vanguards. We challenged each other’s ideas, debated options, and helped one another work through problems that had felt almost impossible at the start of the week.
I arrived with a blank document, a looming deadline, and a healthy level of panic. I left with a nearly completed Capstone and a much greater appreciation for what happens when you are surrounded by talented people who genuinely want to see each other succeed.
Looking back, that week captured the EMBA experience for me: not just academic learning, but growth through honest debate, shared pressure, and real support.
How has the program helped you grow personally or professionally since graduating?
My Capstone focused on a complex business unit within my company that was facing operational and profitability challenges. What started as an academic project became something much bigger.
The work attracted sponsorship from senior leadership and evolved into a real transformation initiative within the organization. We reviewed processes, organizational structures, decision-making practices, and long-standing operational issues that were affecting performance.
The project delivered meaningful business results, but the biggest change was in how I saw myself.
Before the EMBA, I would have described myself primarily as an engineer. Today, I still very much see myself as an engineer, but I no longer see that as the full boundary of my contribution. I have become much more interested in how organizations work, how people make decisions, and how to remove the friction that prevents good teams from performing at their best.
That shift has opened opportunities to lead more complex improvement and transformation projects. It also gave me the confidence to contribute in conversations that sit beyond my original technical comfort zone.
Is this the industry and role you envisioned yourself when you entered the program?
Yes and no.
When I started the EMBA, I thought it might be a path to move away from engineering. I had reached a point where I was curious about broader business roles and wondered whether my next step would take me in a completely different direction.
What I discovered instead was that my engineering background was not something I needed to move away from. It was one of my strongest foundations.
The combination of technical experience and broader business knowledge allows me to connect the practical realities of operations and engineering with strategic decisions, financial impact, and organizational change. That has become a powerful place to operate from.
So I am still in the same industry, and the engineer in me is still very much there. I still enjoy solving complex problems. I just spend slightly less time with spreadsheets and piping diagrams, and more time trying to understand humans, which turns out to be considerably less predictable.
What are some of the biggest takeaways from the EMBA experience?
One of my biggest takeaways was that career growth is not just about learning more. It is also about changing how you show up.
Earlier in my career, I believed that strong technical expertise, hard work, and good problem-solving would naturally create opportunities. And to some extent, they did. But as I moved into more senior roles, I realized that leadership requires a different set of skills.
One thing I had to confront was how uncomfortable I was with what I used to call “office politics.” I saw it negatively and tried to avoid it. The EMBA helped me reframe that.
Influence is not politics. Building relationships, earning trust, understanding stakeholders, and helping people see a different perspective are essential leadership capabilities. Good ideas do not move through organizations on their own. People move them.
As an engineer, I secretly hoped a really good spreadsheet would do most of the persuading. Unfortunately, that has never once been true.
That was a big shift for me. I became more comfortable building networks, advocating for ideas, and contributing outside my immediate area of expertise.
Looking back, the most valuable transformation was not any single course or framework. It was learning to show up differently as a leader.
For those thinking about applying to the HEC Paris EMBA, what advice would you share with them?
I do not think I would have appreciated the EMBA in the same way ten years earlier in my career.
For me, much of the value came from having enough real-world experience, including successes, mistakes, frustrations, and unanswered questions, to connect the classroom discussions directly to situations I was facing at work. The theory became useful because I had lived enough of the reality, and occasionally made enough mistakes, to recognize myself in the case studies.
My advice would be to come into the program with an open mind, but also with real questions you want to work through. The EMBA is not just about collecting knowledge. It is about challenging how you think, what you assume, and sometimes even how you see yourself.
One of the biggest lessons I have carried forward is that sustainable change rarely comes from launching a new tool or process. It comes from understanding the realities people face every day and removing the friction that prevents them from succeeding. That idea has become central to how I lead.
When I started the EMBA, I thought I needed to change who I was professionally in order to grow as a leader. What I discovered was the opposite. The skills and experiences that had shaped my career remained incredibly valuable. The difference was learning how to apply that same curiosity, problem-solving, and structured thinking to a much broader set of challenges.
The EMBA helped me see problems through a wider lens, connecting people, organizations, strategy, and change in ways I had not considered before.
Looking back, the most valuable thing I gained was not the degree itself. It was the confidence to speak up in rooms that once intimidated me, contribute from a broader perspective, and trust that I had something valuable to add. That shift has shaped my career far more than any single course or framework. I started the EMBA thinking it might change my career. Instead, it changed how I saw myself.
DON’T MISS: 10 profiles of HEC Paris EMBA Alumni
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